The Expedy cloud thermal receipt printer is a connected IoT device — unlike standard ticket printers on the market, it connects directly to the internet via Ethernet or SIM 3G/4G. This allows it to receive print jobs remotely without any intermediate computer or driver.
This is what makes the Expedy printer fundamentally different from all other ESC/POS receipt printers: a standard Epson, Citizen or Star ticket printer has no internet connectivity and cannot receive cloud print commands on its own.
Thermal receipt printers that speak ESC/P or ESC/POS (the industry-standard command set) are compatible for:
- Building and formatting receipts using the Expedy tag language
- Local USB printing via a Raspberry Pi (
devicesresource)
However, these printers cannot receive print jobs directly from the Expedy cloud — they are not connected to the internet. A Raspberry Pi acts as the local bridge.
Common ESC/POS receipt printer brands and example models:
| Brand | Example models |
|---|---|
| Epson | TM-T20, TM-T20II, TM-T88V, TM-T88VI, TM-T70, TM-U220 |
| Citizen | CT-S310, CT-S310II, CT-S651, CT-E351, CT-S4000 |
| Star Micronics | TSP143, TSP654, TSP700II, SP742 |
| Bixolon | SRP-350III, SRP-330II |
| Sewoo | LK-T212, LK-T312 |
| SNBC | BTP-R880NP |
The Raspberry Pi USB API (devices resource) also supports label and document printers, including brands such as Netum, Zebra, Brother, Datamax-O'Neil, and many others.
Use GET /devices/{device_uid}/usb/scan followed by GET /devices/{device_uid}/usb/scan/read to discover what your Raspberry Pi sees on each USB port, then GET /devices/{device_uid}/usb/conf to retrieve the detected printer model.
The following printers have been reported as compatible with the Raspberry Pi USB connection. This list is not exhaustive and not guaranteed — compatibility depends on your OS and driver availability.
The list is based on the open-source Gutenprint / GIMP-Print driver database. The full upstream list is available at gimp-print.sourceforge.io/p_Supported_Printers.php.